In a carefully produced podcast interview released this week, Ivanka Trump talked about her latest real estate project — what she described as an “unbelievable, beautiful, 1,400-acre private island in the middle of the Mediterranean,” along with five miles of Albanian coastline slated to be turned into resorts and hotels.
But the project backed by the daughter and son-in-law of the US president, Jared Kushner, also includes the planned development of a protected natural area along the coast opposite the island, which conservation groups say has already caused damage to the beautiful area that Trump was praising.
The luxury venture has sparked large protests in the streets of the capital, Tirana, where demonstrators carried pink cardboard figures of flamingos, whose habitat they say is threatened by the project. It has also caused widespread reactions among Albanian citizens, in a country that has one of the lowest levels of Gross Domestic Product per capita in Europe.
The European director of the environmental organization BirdLife, Ariel Brunner, said he and other environmentalists visited the natural area in early May, where they saw excavators digging up the beach and trucks dumping gravel.
“There was no information board, neither near the lagoon where the road was being opened nor on the beach where the machines were working… there was no sign indicating the existence of a license, permit or even a statement of who was carrying out the work,” he said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister of Albania has insisted that the project has not actually started yet and that “the environmental impact assessment is still in progress”, while continuing to support the development of the country’s Adriatic coast.
What is known so far about the project
The first component of the project – the uninhabited island of Sazan – is a former communist-era military base.
“We were on a friend’s boat and we stopped for a swim. In fact, that’s how we discovered it. We swam to the island, did a barefoot hike to the top and were fascinated,” Trump told American podcaster David Senra earlier this week, bringing the project to the attention of many in Albania and beyond.
The second location – an undeveloped beach segment called Pishë Poro-Nartë – is located within the protected natural area “Vjosa-Nartë Protected Landscape”. It is a habitat for endangered species such as Mediterranean seals, sea turtles that lay their eggs on the coast, as well as over 200 species of birds, including flamingos and pelicans.
CNN contacted Jared Kushner’s private investment fund about the project, but was directed to another company, Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, and was told the investors are involved in a personal capacity.
“We are excited about the opportunity to create a world-class destination and make one of the largest private investments in the region’s history. Our focus remains on responsible stewardship, environmental improvement, job creation and long-term value creation for local communities,” Asher Abehsera, chairman of Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, said in a statement.
“We respect the public and institutional processes that are underway and are ready to move forward as they continue.”
Kushner stated at an investment summit last year that, while sailing along the Albanian coast in 2021, Prime Minister Edi Rama had boarded his ship for a meeting and that a year later they had discussed investment opportunities. In 2024, Kushner published conceptual images of the project for the Albanian coast on social networks.
Critics have repeatedly raised concerns that Kushner’s private business activities could constitute a conflict of interest, given that he also serves as a special envoy to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.
He has received significant support from the sovereign wealth funds of the countries with which he also conducts official government activities, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
On Wednesday, Rama confirmed that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are involved in the venture, but said it also includes a wider group of investors and architects from Japan, Denmark, Turkey, Greece and France.
Rama also claimed that “there is still no project” and that the “environmental impact is still being worked on,” when asked by CNN reporter Isa Soares if real estate development on the island and nature reserve is ongoing.
“There is no such thing as the American president’s family taking over protected areas where the flamingos will be killed by them,” Rama said, adding that the developer group has engaged a consulting company to examine the impact on the environment.
The Prime Minister insisted that the project will not “throw concrete over the heads of flamingos”, but instead will prove that development and nature “can coexist”.
Earlier this week, the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) told local media that it had opened an investigation into the project, but gave no further details. CNN reached out to SPAK for comment, but did not hear back.
Controversial change in the laws of nature
Part of the backlash against the project in Albania is related to a change in nature protection laws, passed in 2024, which allows the construction of luxury resorts within protected environmental zones. The law already exempts from the restrictions “structures of excellence, with 5 stars or more”, as well as related hospitality activities.
“Usually, the fact that rich people can do what they want is something that is hidden behind a language of public interest, exceptional situations and so on. But to write directly into the law that luxury resorts are exempt from these restrictions is really extraordinary,” said BirdLife’s Brunner.
“This is one of the most brutal environmental legal texts I have seen in my career.”
According to him, this legal change does not comply with the legislation of the European Union, an issue that has been a sensitive point while Albania continues negotiations for EU membership.
“We have already expressed our concerns to the Minister of the Environment about the potential shortcomings of this project,” a spokesperson for the European Commission told CNN about the planned development in the Poro-Narte Pine Protected Landscape.
“Our concerns are not new… the repeated extension of the law on strategic investments in Albania continues to raise concerns about possible environmental impacts, especially in protected areas.”
Conservation groups say they believe the Albanian government intends to push ahead with this development and other smaller projects before nature laws are changed again to bring them into line with EU rules.
The spokesperson of the European Commission told CNN that the Ministry of Environment of Albania was “committed that construction works have been suspended”.
He also added that SPAK’s investigations “reportedly extend beyond environmental concerns.”
CNN has also requested comment from the Ministry of Environment and the National Agency of Protected Areas.
What are the protesters saying?
Environmentalists and ordinary citizens have protested the project for weeks, demanding the release of the permits and calling on lawmakers to help protect the pristine coastline.
“The project is quite destructive, as it is expected to be built within a protected area, within a protected landscape that is among the most intact wetlands in the Mediterranean,” Melitjan Nezaj, an environmental biologist at the Albanian organization PPNEA (Protection and Conservation of the Natural Environment in Albania), told CNN.
“Until this moment, there is no permission made public.”
PPNEA stated that part of the ecological damage to the sand dunes is “already irreversible” and that the works have “blocked one of the two entrances that connect the Narta Lagoon to the sea, interrupting the natural exchange of waters and bringing immediate chain consequences for fish, birds and the entire food chain”.
Protesters have been demonstrating in the protected area – outside the recently erected fences – holding banners with pink flamingos and large-headed sea turtles.
Environmental groups have also documented the presence of heavy machinery on the beach, a drilling rig located on a hillside and security guards patrolling the area, though it is not clear if they are directly related to the Kushner-backed project.
Large protests also took place in the capital on several days this week, where citizens chanted: “Albania is not for sale.”
BirdLife told CNN it is not opposed to any form of shoreline development, arguing that other areas with abandoned buildings or previous urban development would be good candidates for revitalization.
“Certain types of nature can coexist with certain types of development; but the transformation of an entire island and a river delta into a de facto city cannot,” said Brunner.
“If you physically destroy the habitat, everything that lives in that habitat will disappear.”
Because environmental groups and the media have not seen the project’s planning permits or documents, it is difficult to know exactly how many buildings are planned and in which parts of the protected area.
However, in her podcast interview, Ivanka Trump emphasized the sheer scale of the project.
“We’re going to have hotels, resorts, wellness centers, everything — the scale of it is almost staggering,” she said.
He later added that the “community” was at the heart of the project.
“You can’t just impose yourself on a country or a culture – you have to understand it first, in order to do that in a beautiful, subtle and meaningful way.”
CNN journalists Vasco Cotovio, Isa Soares and Olivia Briand contributed to this report.
